Annual Report 2006-2007 - Cafcass

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Transforming the organisation Objective 1 Becoming a more strategic organisation in order to represent children and their interests We are now confident that we have put in place the building blocks for a strong future. A number of key strategies, frameworks and policies, which have been agreed through consultation with staff, now support the delivery of our services and our focus on children’s interests. We are developing a stronger culture of self-assessment so that we can continually improve our services rather than relying on inspection and audit alone. Organising for Quality We are continuing to empower local service delivery through our change programme Organising for Quality, which builds on proposals outlined in the 2005–06 Cafcass consultation Every Day Matters. The programme includes freeing up our Service Managers to offer more practice support to frontline practitioners, by shifting some of their administrative work to Office Managers. It also sets out to create three corporate support services covering the North of England, Central England and the South of England respectively, which will create a more efficient and effective service. We will implement this in 2007–08. Quality assurance In 2006–07 we implemented our Quality Assurance Framework, following a thorough consultation. This is a systematic approach to identifying and responding to the needs of service users by providing an appropriate service consistently and to agreed standards. Given the independent nature of our work, our ability to demonstrate quality is vital. However, it is important that our quality assurance is flexible, supports service delivery and allows for an approach based on continuous improvement of services. As well as investing in a baseline audit of frontline practice we have updated our Quality Assurance Framework to reflect experiences of using it and to focus on new areas of work such as dispute resolution. Accountability Over the past year we have taken a proactive approach towards corporate governance by working towards promoting a culture of openness and accountability. Corporate decisions and performance reports are placed on our intranet and we have a robust publication scheme on our website, as required under the Freedom of Information Act. A total of eight Board meetings, one extraordinary meeting, one Board away day and an open meeting were held during the year. We have completed the implementation of our electronic Case Management System (CMS) in all of our regions and we are now able to collect more robust data. This supports our desire to be more transparent and accountable and we continue to publish performance reports internally and to our external partners and stakeholders. Child focus Our National Standard 5 is children’s active involvement and we have made considerable progress in strengthening the voice of children in our work. We have clearly set out our commitment to children’s rights through the leadership of our Children’s Rights Director, a national team of Children’s Rights Champions supported by Participation Workers and our Children’s Rights Strategy. There is a clear work plan, which is being reviewed and monitored by children and young people. The Children’s Rights team has actively ensured that all our policies and practice models are child-centred. We have adopted clear principles and procedures for the active participation of children and young people, as set out by Participation Works 5 . In addition there are national good practice guidelines, agreed in collaboration with children, on how they should be involved. Young People’s Board In August 2006, we put in place a Young People’s Board to help inform the direction of our work. Ten young people were initially recruited based on their experience of parental separation and family breakdown, including those who had experience of local authority care. These young people have influenced our approaches to service provision and helped us to understand the impact we have on their lives. Other work with young people Young people have delivered training on the engagement of children in practice and contributed to a training programme on the new Cafcass National Standards. All our major conferences promote their views and feelings and we are continuing to involve young people in the recruitment of staff. My Needs, Wishes and Feelings Our work with young people included consideration of how their voices could be promoted in court proceedings. With their support we developed the My Needs, Wishes and Feelings resource pack. My Needs, Wishes and Feelings, used alongside other tools, can help a young person share their feelings directly with the court, if they wish to do so. My Needs, Wishes and Feelings has been welcomed by many of our partners and several judges. As a result, the Children’s Rights team, with the support of external partners and young people, has developed the children’s impact statement. This aims to support and enable young people to share their story when they have been exposed to any incidence of direct or indirect abuse. 5 Participation Works is an online gateway to the world of children and young people’s participation 22 | Cafcass Annual Report and Accounts 2006–07
“This excellent practice guidance helps us to achieve the goal of placing the children at the forefront of the decisions that affect their lives. I welcome it wholeheartedly.” HH Judge Hunt, Designated Family Judge, West Yorkshire – endorsement of My Needs, Wishes and Feelings Viewpoint In 2006 we introduced Viewpoint, an electronic interactive feedback system devised for children. Young Voice evaluated the first two hundred responses on our behalf. This research gave us further direction on ways of improving our engagement with children going through family proceedings. Child-focused work with other agencies Our partnership with the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has been very positive and together we launched “Children’s Rights in Practice”, which sets out five key standards. We have created joint protocols with Ofsted and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, and the Young Muslim Women Group in Bradford has helped us to develop “Golden Standards of Practice”. See page 20 for more information on our partnerships and alliances. Resources from the My Needs, Wishes and Feelings pack case study The Cafcass Young People’s Board’s contribution to the transparency debate “Kids at school aren’t stupid, and if they know someone’s going through something and something comes out in the papers about someone going to court, then there will be rumours spreading that that was that person.“ Jasmin “With the press around judges will be more careful because they will have to be accountable for their decisions one day.” Khadijah “I think it should be up to the individual because it’s their life and they can decide what they can do with it.” Sarah “An advantage of the press being able to go into the courtroom is that the public gets knowledge of what’s going on inside of the courtroom.” Taleefa Section 1: Management Commentary | 23
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Annual Report 2006-2007 - Cafcass

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